Our Story is God’s Story
July 23, 2008, God brought me to Cambodia with only three months of secured financial support. Again and again, God shows who He is in His Word. I am grateful to God for the cross and His amazing grace in calling us to be part of His awesome work transforming Cambodians to follow Jesus. Praise the Lord for your active partnership for 16 years! Thank you very much! Looking back, a fisherwoman to fishers of men! Glory is all His.
Life beautiful stories in June:
Praise the Lord for another opportunity to help Pastor Sam by accepting his invitation to train the new and old teachers in LOHI. As a trained educator, God used this training to help LOHI Cambodian teachers become effective teachers by causing an impact on the lives of the learners. I asked a missionary friend, Adrienne, to handle the Arts & Crafts activities. All the efforts in the preparations paid off after we saw the joyful participation of the teachers and through their written feedback.
Glory to God for Pastor Sophin’s life. He celebrated his 42nd birthday with a joyful heart, the whole church honored Pastor Sophin and his commitment to shepherding the church. I have known him since he was single and freshly graduated with his Master’s Degree in APTS, Baguio Phillippines. By the grace of God, we planted WABC church in 2012 outside the school with 10 to 15 members from our cell groups. Pastor Sophin married Vannarath, one of our teachers, and now they are blessed with three beautiful girls. I have witnessed their transformed life, faith in Jesus, and service in God.
Shine Intentional discipleship ministry is slowly moving in faith, challenging Sreytoch, Mak Ya, Mak Chan, Essa, & Mie Oun to obey God faithfully at their workplace and in their respective families. They spend time with God’s Word daily for at least fifteen minutes and have been trying to memorize Bible verses. I found this quite difficult for the Cambodians, maybe because it is lengthy in their language and also because the enemy is hindering them from spending time in His Word. Mak Chan is not confident in manifesting her faith in Jesus, especially in attending church. After three years of Bible study and prayer, she took a beautiful step to worship Jesus Christ with the girls at work during our Sunday worship. Her first-ever worship with the family of Christ happened recently! Hallelujah!
Shine Cell Group is going deeper as we have this 15-minute challenge in reading God’s Word daily. Sopheak had been planning to move to Phnom Penh to continue his university, but I encouraged him to ask for God’s guidance and to pray. I am happy that he is staying in Battambang for this year, so he can go deeper in His relationship with God and learn more about His Word through our Bible study. Seng and Sreylis are unbelievers; they love to join our cell group. Daneth, the sister of Dara has finished her nursing university class and now has a contractual job as a nurse at Handa Emergency Hospital in Battambang. Daneth’s work allows her to have a Saturday break, so she’s happy that she can take part in our Shine ministry. She also brought Marie, her cousin, who was part of our village kids ministry in the past. Time flies, the little girl I used to carry is now taller than me! Because of the 15-minute Bible reading challenge, Marie is reading her Bible; this encourages me. Teaching and caring for these kids 10 years ago is finally bearing its fruit by the grace of God. I hope and pray they will apply the truth they learned from the Bible. Thus, they could have gotten 91 hours in 1 year reading the Bible if they consistently spent 15 minutes every day. Many of them spend longer hours with phones daily. Thus, redeeming the time is crucial.
Life beautiful stories in July:
Worship Assembly Battambang City (WABC) has moved into a new location; renting a flat, because of the frequent floods in the old church-rented building. We are all grateful to God for the 12 fruitful years in that old place. The whole church was helping carry all the church and Pastor Sophin’s family’s stuff; I witnessed “Bayanihan” (working as a community). It was difficult, especially for Pastor Sophin, but as one body in Christ, we were able to be of help. Pastor Sophin had asked me in June to share the Word of God every last Sunday of July, August, and September in our Sunday Worship. I am glad to be of help as Pastor Sophin got sick for a week after all the hard work in moving to a new place.
CGI Green Mango’s Friday worship among the staff and students is God’s way of helping the spiritual journey of the staff, and the vulnerable students who are some of them just got to know and received Jesus Christ recently. I am closely working with Vannarath (Pastor Sophin’s wife) as the director of CGI Battambang, I help Vannarath in making plans for Friday worship, quarterly and yearly themes, and in teaching God’s Word. God is indeed at work not only in the life of Vannarath but also in the growth of Singim and Noch in their leadership role. Praise the Lord!
Dara, Sivheurn, their two children, Vattanak, & Ketya, and younger sister, Danoch, with her two aunties, Savy (pregnant) and Maly had lunch at Shine. Gathering Dara and her family at one table was an extraordinary moment. Dara is teaching far from Battambang and she seldom comes back home. Listening and praying for Dara and her growing family brings back sweet and bitter tears... Dara is thriving as she faces difficult challenges at home and work, however, her tenacious faith in Jesus is also evident. Praise the Lord for raising Dara to be salt and light to her family, school, and community. We pray that Dara will be transferred to nearby schools in Battambang to be closer to her husband, and children. The story of Dara is God’s beautiful story of forgiveness, grace, and salvation. Dara worked from a garbage collector, and biscuit vendor, to a government educator, and essentially God’s catalyst of change for her siblings, family, and community.
Alison Grace celebrated her first birthday with her parents, Nika and Gideon last month. Spending time with Nika and family with her relatives was a good opportunity to share the amazing grace of Jesus. Time flies, and God has allowed me to witness Nika's spiritual and marriage life growth. May her growing family and the children’s ministry in her village continue to grow.
Please Pray for:
1. Salvation
of Sreylis, Seng, Mak Thi, and Marie. Shine intentional discipleship ministry.
2. Good
health, wisdom, and sensitivity from the Holy Spirit (WABC, Word last
Sunday, August).
3. Visa
renewal this month.
4. My brother-in-law, Pastor Lito Solasco's health, God’s miracle healing for his right eye. He
lost his left eye two months ago due to diabetes. Both my older sister and
Pastor Lito are active in pastoring two churches and 1 outreach despite his
physical condition. God is merciful and Sovereign.
Indeed, our transformed life is God's beautiful story of redemption, grace, and salvation. Thank you so much for your continued partnership in missions. I am grateful. May the Lord keep you and bless you. Please let me know your prayer requests as well.
“God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him”—John Piper.
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